AAC basketball post UConn? | The Boneyard

AAC basketball post UConn?

CL82

CL82

James Breeding sucks
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7. AAC​

At this point, the AAC probably needs to be grouped in with the Atlantic 10, Missouri Valley, Mountain West and West Coast conferences when it comes to the hoops discussion. That's a shame, because with a little polishing, the potential is there for this league to regularly send four teams to the NCAA Tournament. Even with UConn departed for the Big East, brand names like Cincinnati, Houston, Memphis, Wichita State should be able to take this conference higher than its gone in recent years. Schools like Temple, SMU and UCF have also shown flashes of the potential needed to raise this league's basketball profile but have struggled to generate consistency. Put simply, the AAC is underperforming, even with Houston making a Final Four run in 2021.

Link
 
CL82 said:

7. AAC​

At this point, the AAC probably needs to be grouped in with the Atlantic 10, Missouri Valley, Mountain West and West Coast conferences when it comes to the hoops discussion. That's a shame, because with a little polishing, the potential is there for this league to regularly send four teams to the NCAA Tournament. Even with UConn departed for the Big East, brand names like Cincinnati, Houston, Memphis, Wichita State should be able to take this conference higher than its gone in recent years. Schools like Temple, SMU and UCF have also shown flashes of the potential needed to raise this league's basketball profile but have struggled to generate consistency. Put simply, the AAC is underperforming, even with Houston making a Final Four run in 2021.

Link
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Who?
 
It's a far better basketball conference than when we entered.

My evidence? Once a University truly sucks ... they actually feel they need to change coaches. (SEE Tulane) The UCF, SMU occasional high points. The underlying tradition and potential of ... Memphis & Cincinnati. The HOUSTON Final Four and general overall recasting by Kelvin Sampson. All are evidence of a general rise of all boats by a Conference. But, it still is a farflung grouping with many Universities that clearly don't care about Hoop the way our fanbase does.
 
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The Big East had an expected down year. Hopefully the conference's middle tier improves, returnees improve, and incoming transfers / recruits lift programs. On balance, it seems like most Big East teams could be a bit older. Five bids is realistic.

DePaul will be DePaul (longer term rebuild), and it's a shame GTown lost Wahab. But Xavier, Seton Hall, and Butler (with several seniors opting to return) should be solid. Marquette and St. John's are unknowns due to significant roster upheaval, but they have talent and good coaches. Providence? No idea.
 
Palatine said:
The Big East arrogance is simply not supported by the facts. IMHO, the only thing that will save the BE is UConn reasserting it's place among the country's bluebloods. They need us more than we need them.
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Nova has done pretty well flying the standard while we were gone. Creighton and the Hall will both be good teams next year and, though we are most certainly doomed, we could make some noise next year too.
 
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Palatine said:
The Big East arrogance is simply not supported by the facts. IMHO, the only thing that will save the BE is UConn reasserting it's place among the country's bluebloods. They need us more than we need them.
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Nova will still be a force for as long as Wright is there. You figure one other program will have Pitt level high periods most years. It's not the Big East we remember by a long shot. The old C7 schools all have ceilings. If they didn't, they would have been better a long time ago.

Gtown is the real disappointment. How a program with that many hall of famers can't keep their stuff together is a real mystery. They had a Kemba-lite run in MSG, congrats now do something with it.

I expect nothing but mediocrity from SHU. SJU, PC. Creighton and Butler have better chances of sustained semi-elevance.
 
Palatine said:
The Big East arrogance is simply not supported by the facts. IMHO, the only thing that will save the BE is UConn reasserting it's place among the country's bluebloods. They need us more than we need them.
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In choosing to deepen your sneer at "arrogance" by adding "simply," and then narrowing your corrective with "only," I believe that you erred by including the "H" in your acronym.

Beyond belief, I know that "it's" was its own error of a different kind.

Thanks for sharing your opinion.
Otherwise
 
Palatine said:
The Big East arrogance is simply not supported by the facts. IMHO, the only thing that will save the BE is UConn reasserting it's place among the country's bluebloods. They need us more than we need them.
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If only there were some way to measure conference performance over the years...

1620846040552.png


Shout out to Mr. KenPom.
 
uconngb said:
Just out of curiosity, what is this a table of? # of teams in the tourney? # of wins in the tourney? # of ranked teams? SOS ranking?
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KenPom conference rankings.
 
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uconngb said:
Just out of curiosity, what is this a table of? # of teams in the tourney? # of wins in the tourney? # of ranked teams? SOS ranking?
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KenPom I'm guessing
One measurement and it looks good but again. only one
 
UConn got into D1 FB to save the hoops programs. It almost killed them instead.
 
gtcam said:
KenPom I'm guessing
One measurement and it looks good but again. only one
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that's like saying yeah NET is cool but it's only one measurement, when in reality it's the most important metric and is calculated based on many different statistics. except in this case there is no other objective and comprehensive comparison available
 
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Palatine said:
It's one of the conferences that had a Final Four team.

NCAA College Basketball RPI Rankings (updated today)

NCAA college basketball RPI rankings and ratings for 2026, updated daily for all teams and available historically for every day of the 2026 season.
www.teamrankings.com www.teamrankings.com
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Gonzaga made it to the National Championship game. That must mean the WCC was the second best conference this past season...
 
Palatine said:
The Big East arrogance is simply not supported by the facts. IMHO, the only thing that will save the BE is UConn reasserting it's place among the country's bluebloods. They need us more than we need them.
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Exactly Pal. This league is the A-10 with Villanova. Or the WCC plus Gonzaga.

The original Big East was a power conference. Had multiple national champions. Twice in the last 10 years of existence it had multiple Final Four teams. 3 different teams won titles. 6 different teams went to the Final Four. Six. This league hasn’t gotten 6 teams past the 1st weekend. It has nothing to do with football. Nothing to do with computer rankings. It had to do with actual production when production counts. This New Big East is like Duke in 1999. They put up a banner for “winning” the KenPom or some other geekish national championship. We put up a banner for winning the game. Sad to say this, but the New Big East fans sound more like Dukies than UConn fans. “The computers say we’re #5 conference.” Sad. Just sad.
 
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SubbaBub said:
Nova will still be a force for as long as Wright is there. You figure one other program will have Pitt level high periods most years. It's not the Big East we remember by a long shot. The old C7 schools all have ceilings. If they didn't, they would have been better a long time ago.

Gtown is the real disappointment. How a program with that many hall of famers can't keep their stuff together is a real mystery. They had a Kemba-lite run in MSG, congrats now do something with it.

I expect nothing but mediocrity from SHU. SJU, PC. Creighton and Butler have better chances of sustained semi-elevance.
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This is pretty accurate. I’d add Xavier to the semi-relevant column. Georgetown won’t say it out loud, but they are effectively deemphasizing athletics, or more correctly following an Ivy League model. This years run was one of those flukes that happen every now and then. The powers at the school will consider it a perfect year any time they win as many as they lose. Just note to that any discussion of the regional coherence of the New Big East kind of ignores the location of Creighton, Butler, DePaul, Marquette, Xavier. Those are all harder to get to from Hartford than Tampa, Orlando, Houston, Dallas. And give me New Orleans over any place in Nebraska.
 
CL82 said:
Nova has done pretty well flying the standard while we were gone. Creighton and the Hall will both be good teams next year and, though we are most certainly doomed, we could make some noise next year too.
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I didn't say there were no good teams in the BE. But the BE is not an elite conference and it won't be unless we make it one.

You listen to the BE groupies on this site and the way they view the conference is delusional. Hurry we're in the sixth best conference.
 
Palatine said:
I didn't say there were no good teams in the BE. But the BE is not an elite conference and it won't be unless we make it one.

You listen to the BE groupies on this site and the way they view the conference is delusional. Hurry we're in the sixth best conference.
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...but the AAC, actually buoyed by a F4 team, is a far cry from this "non-elite" conf, in prestige, bid quality, essentially everything. How can you explain that without hacking your stupid "ZBE" nonsense to pieces?

You're the delusional one here, pining for re-entry to ye olde CUSA.
 
wheelerdog said:
The AAC's biggest issue is that the bottom 4 or 5 teams continually drag the conference down.
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This!

And the bottom tier accomplish this feat structurally.

Not only does the W/L record among them pull them down, but they tend to have very weak (out of conference) SOS, as well.

It is tough for the mid to top tier of the conference to look strong when their conference schedule, itself, pulls them down.
 
The AAC never showed us the respect that the only school from that misfit conference to win a title deserved. We were mostly met with hostility as the only Yankees in Hickville. Why anyone is still pining for that is beyond me.
 
Waquoit said:
The AAC never showed us the respect that the only school from that misfit conference to win a title deserved. We were mostly met with hostility as the only Yankees in Hickville. Why anyone is still pining for that is beyond me.
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Has @Palatine ever explicitly said he'd prefer that we were back in the AAC? I've always interpreted his ravings as contending that the Big East sucks, without saying that UConn is better off in the AAC. I know that doesn't make any sense, but I just assumed that he is a troll or a madman, which accounts for the logical dissonance.
 
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